FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I thought I'd make a post about where to buy carnivorous plants in the Chicago area. There's a few places I know of that have them, but they're just not advertised much or are hard to find searching online. If anyone here is from the area and has other suggestions on places please reply letting me know what other plant suppliers have them.

I would recommend calling these places before-hand if you plan on visiting because I see that what's in stock changes monthly.

1. Ted's Greenhouse in Tinley Park, IL
Best place I have found so far! They have four benches of just flytraps, pitcher plants (Sarr and some Neps), sundews, butterworts, and some utrics.

2. Platt Hill Nursery in Bloomingdale, IL
Had some interestingly colored typical flytraps, butterworts, a few types of sarracenias. I heard that they have more CP's in the colder months when there is not a big demand for summer yard plants (Bushes, vegetables, flowers, etc)
Nice selection of plants other that CP's as well (Baja fairy duster, Maidenhair ferns, staghorn ferns, eucalyptus, sensitive plants, etc)

3. Hausermann orchids in Villa Park, IL
They have varying amounts of CP's each month. Some flytraps, butterworts, but occasionally get a cool item (I found my "buttcheeks" cultivar flytrap here and have also seen a huge sarracenia leucophylla)

4. Pesche nursery in Des Plaines, IL
They get some shipments of pretty big "typical" flytraps and some capensis sundews.

5. Chicago botanic gardens in Glencoe, IL
When they have orchid shows and sales the vendors bring in some Cp's to sell as well. Check their website for when orchid vendors have sale dates.
They also have a pretty nice CP bog in one of the greenhouses now which is worth checking out.

Went to Ted's Greenhouse today. That place is amazing. Really huge, and packed with nothing but greenhouses full of plants. Amazing selection. They claim to have the biggest variety of cacti east of the Mississippi and after seeing half of it I believe them. Lots of carnivorous plants too. I don't even live that far but I never heard of it, but it's probably the best nursery I've seen. Thanks for making this list.

I went two weeks ago and it was very sparse. I hope in a few weeks they'll get some new shipments and return to having 4 benches of just cp's.

I went to ted's 2 weeks ago or so their selection seems to have been better in the winter, but I did happen to find an Oreophila so it worked out in the end.

I would definately recommend ted's as your go to nursery if you can get there. Platt Hill really doesn't get too much CPs anymore, that was the nursery I got my first CPs from, I remember they had sundews, butterwarts, sarrs, nepenthes, pretty much everything, now I only ever see VFTs.


Hausermans seems to have butterwarts, fly traps, leucophylla's and ventratas. Although I found their fly traps aren't that impressive.

I want to check out the other places this summer or fall.

I was also at teds about two weeks ago to look at his new stock of vfts.

He told me that they grow their cultivar flytraps from seed, and that professional growers say perlite kills cps. And idk how he went from hundreds of sarracenia to only a few. I'm not sure what's going on it used to be way better with CPs.

Platt hill also had nothing today but someone told me their getting a new shipment soon.

I bought king Henry, Akai ryu, dente vft's from ted's this week. They had some nice quality looking traps. Also bought two mexican butterworts (Agnata, Caudata). Ted insists that he grows his venus fly traps, and other carnivores plants with doing winter dormancy and never had an issues. The Venus flytraps are younger, can you skip 1 year of dormancy when they are young?



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PitcherLover40 wrote:I bought king Henry, Akai ryu, dente vft's from ted's this week. They had some nice quality looking traps. Also bought two mexican butterworts (Agnata, Caudata). Ted insists that he grows his venus fly traps, and other carnivores plants with doing winter dormancy and never had an issues. The Venus flytraps are younger, can you skip 1 year of dormancy when they are young?

He also says "the ICPS says NOT to use perlite", has some sundews mis-labeled, and "grows cultivars from seed".

In regards to dormancy: You don't have to skip it, since there are many ways to do it. I rely on photoperiod not temperature. I leave my temperate CP's out till late November, then inside on a short photoperiod, or better yet in a cool+shady part of a greenhouse.

SundewWolf wrote:

PitcherLover40 wrote:I bought king Henry, Akai ryu, dente vft's from ted's this week. They had some nice quality looking traps. Also bought two mexican butterworts (Agnata, Caudata). Ted insists that he grows his venus fly traps, and other carnivores plants with doing winter dormancy and never had an issues. The Venus flytraps are younger, can you skip 1 year of dormancy when they are young?

He also says "the ICPS says NOT to use perlite", has some sundews mis-labeled, and "grows cultivars from seed".

In regards to dormancy: You don't have to skip it, since there are many ways to do it. I rely on photoperiod not temperature. I leave my temperate CP's out till late November, then inside on a short photoperiod, or better yet in a cool+shady part of a greenhouse.

I wish I had a greenhouse the northamerican sarracenia temperate sundews and traps I need to figure out a good place for them this year for fall and winter I don't want to see a polar vortex killing them.


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If your looking for nepenthes and sarracenia take a look on the orchid mall under Leo schordje there is a carnivorous plant page.

I recently went to the Platt Hill in Carpentersville and they had some Ventrata hanging baskets.

Also I want to put this out there, I purchased a Sarracenia last week from Platt Hill in Bloomingdale and it is covered in what I'm guessing is scale. I'm not 100% sure but there are these little flaky things that I have been scratching off with tweezers for the past 15 minutes, and they certainly look like scale and fit the description. I know this isn't the first time I have purchased a plant from Platt Hill that had these, so just a little warning about possible pest problems they might have from their supplier.

Does anyone know good nurseries near Naperville, IL? I have been traveling for months now which is why I have not been posting. I am now in Chicago and want to pickup a plant as I have no nurseries near my home.


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ncbetz wrote:Does anyone know good nurseries near Naperville, IL?

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I order all plants online now.